Damned quiet; quietly damned?

OK, so I had a bit of a stumble as you can see from the recap. That 16 really hurt me, at least for a little while that day. I ended up not running (or swimming) again until the following weekend just because I was plain tired. Since then, however, I'm back at it. Got all three training runs in last week, did all my iron work (but still haven't been back in the pool). Will fix that as the week goes on. And after I get on the scale tomorrow (promise).

One other thing I'm noticing. I guess it's because I've taken more off days that I'm used to, but I feel like I'm packing the weight back on and getting slower and fatter. For instance, felt wicked slow during Sunday's 12miler. Then I saw that it's the 2nd fastest 12 miles I ever ran (actually ran 19 at a slightly faster pace back in early October). Today I didn't feel particular quick, but it was the 2nd fastest 4 miles I've ever run. My fastest 4? Also back in October. I'm not sure I like that pattern too much.

The Damage:
11/22: Off day
11/23: AM Iron
11/24: AM Iron
11/25: AM Iron
11/26: Off day
11/27: Off day
11/28: 8 miler (1:36:18 or 12:02 per)
11/29: 2.91miler (32:19 or 11:05 per)
11/30: AM Iron
12/1: AM Iron; 3.05miler (33:04 or 10:51 per)
12/2: AM Iron; 3.2miler (36:46 or 11:28 per)
12/3: Off day
12/4: Off day
12/5: 12.01miler (2:24:14 or 12:00 per)
12/6: 4.19miler (45:06 or 10:46 per)

Oh, by the way. Signed up for the race last night. Looks like I'm committed.

Or at least should be.

Forget about me yet?

OK, so I haven't been posting in recent days, but that doesn't mean I haven't been active. First the bad, however.

Brother came to town as advertised. And while that in itself is a good thing, the excessive amounts of mexican food, more frequent beers, breakfast burritos...well, you get the idea. Tried to maintain some control during the together time, but not really sure how well I did. Guess the scale tomorrow will tell the tale.

There's been much good during that time, however. Since I was last in here on the 9th, the hit list looks like this:

11/10: 1 mile swim

11/11: iron work in the morning, 3 mile run that evening

11/12: iron in the AM, mile swim in the PM

11/13: off day

11/14: 8 mile run

11/15: AM iron

11/16: mile swim at lunch, 3+ mile run after lunch

11/17: mile swim that night

11/18: AM iron, 4.5 mile run at lunch

11/19: AM iron

11/20: off day

11/21: 16 mile run

A fairly decent showing, but the last entry kind of scared me. The 16 hurt. Legs started cramping again, and again I don't think I was drinking enough water. Will I EVER learn? On the plus side, however, I appear to have run that distance 13 1/2 minutes faster than the same distance along mostly the same path just 4 months ago. That's improvement.

Right?

Nope, haven't flaked yet

OK, well maybe just a bit. Monday was a hot mess all the way around, so didn't get the workout in that I'd hope, but think I may have made up for it today with a bit of vengeance. Got up and went the gym and lifted at 6:15, hit the pool for a mile over lunch, and then knocked off the 3miler above after work (about 11:05/per). Not a bad day, but not likely to be able to pull it off tomorrow: got usual M/W obligations after work and brother is coming to town for about a week starting tomorrow, and he's staying with me. This will be a test, especially keeping the eating under control.

Still, a good effort on the day.

On the road again

So, delayed by a day, but got out there today (don't think I'm completely dogging it already, I did get in a mile in the pool yesterday afternoon). Headed out just before 8 this morning and realized why I wasn't quite as eager to get out as I wanted to be. I expected to hurt. Started thinking about it and realized that the last time I'd run was a week ago. In DC. At the Marine Corps Marathon. At the end, everything hurt, and that was plainly what I was thinking about in the back of my head. My first few steps were tentative, but once I got going and realized I wasn't the hot mess I was at the end of the MCM, I settled in OK. Decided not to push real hard today and only did 4.5 at about an 11 min. pace. Not blazing fast, but for a guy that not too long ago was happy to do long runs under 15/per.

My plan right now is to hop on the scale manana, see where I am, and start making some more solid plans then. I doing this.

Here we go again...

OK, yes, it's been a loooong time sine either CS or I have been here and posted anything. It's not all bad however, we've both been busy this past summer and early fall. Since we were last here, we both ran the Garden of the Gods 10-miler (and fast enough to make the Ascent cutoff), I ran the Summer Roundup Trial Run (which I only needed to finish in order to qualify for the Ascent), we hiked from Manitou Springs to the top of Pikes Peak twice, we did ladder hikes at the top once, I went up La Luz about 5 times in the 6-7 weeks before the Ascent, and then tackled the Pikes Peak Ascent itself. And everyone survived (in fact, I finished only minute behind CS... A DAMNED MINUTE!). Finally, this past weekend I was in DC and ran the Marine Corps Marathon, which is prompts this posting today.

I had plans to make a great improvement on my time from my first marathon experience two years ago, and largely accomplished it this year: I finished it running and shaved nearly two hours (not a typo) off of my first marathon time. But it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. Inexplicably, I started to ache around the 13 mile mark, my calves started to grab around mile 17, and by 20-22 they were in full revolt, cramping like crazy. While I beat a lot of people that, at least visually, were in better shape than me, I wasn't and am still not happy about the way the last 6-8 miles played out and started plotting another attempt almost as soon as I'd finished. Clearly, there's something wrong with me. While I'm not going to hide this fact, I'm not going to advertise beyond this blog what my plans are (which you can probably guess by looking at the countdown widget in the upper right corner of this blog page). Right now my plan is to go out to PHX, run the time I'd hoped to get in DC, and then I'll back off.

Since I got back from DC Monday night, I haven't run at all. Wanted to give the body a chance to heal up (today's the first day this week I don't feel any after-effect soreness) and rest. I have been in the pool three times, however, and swam a mile each time, so I haven't completely settled back on my laurels. Planning on going out to run tomorrow, something in the area of 5-6 miles, just to see how I feel and to determine how wise it is to aim for another marathon in just over two months. At this moment, I feel pretty confident it can be done, I just need to stay committed for the duration. I want this.

So, starting tomorrow, I'll try to start posting regularly again. Training runs, timing, eating summaries, whatever will keep me honest and on the ball. This thing goes off in 72 days.

One Day in a Row

Well, so here I am for the second time in a long, long time, as promised. Cutting to the chase, here's the info:

Meal	Item Name	Calories
breakfast	All Natural String Cheese	80
breakfast	Oats 'N Honey Granola Bar	190
morning snack	Beef Jerky - Original	70
morning snack	Diet Big Red	0
lunch	Baked Lays Ruffles Original	120
lunch	Diet Coke	0
lunch	Dried Pineapple	140
lunch	6" Subway Turkey/Ham On Flatbread	395
dinner	Apples	75
dinner	Chips And Salsa	150
dinner	Saidie's Chicken Enchiladas	453
dinner	Refried Beans	140
dinner	Sopapillas- 1 With Honey	630

As you can see, everything was going fine until after our track workout tonight...pinche Sadies. Like I said, however, up until that point, things were going fine:

Exercise	Min.	Cal.	Distance
Swim	40	879	1.00 miles
Run	45	989	4.80 miles

That's a total of 2651 calories consumed, and 1868 burned, w/a reserve of 1416 calories (though if you ask me, that number for the enchiladas is probably more than a little light). I keep that up for a couple of weeks and we might actually see something.

Throwin' down the gauntlet

So here's the deal: Garden of the Gods is less than 3 weeks away. Yesterday I did the fastest 7 mile run I've ever done, but it still averaged out to about 12:15 a mile on very flat terrain. That pace puts me at 2:04:30 and that's before adding in elevation, inclines and just general fatigue that comes with a longer distance. This has me more than a little worried.

So, what to do. Well, what can I do besides throw my back in to this from now until I leave for Colorado on June 10. My goal is to get in at least one workout every day (I'm on the fence about whether lifting is going to count) and to try and stay on the good-eats wagon until that Sunday morning after the race. While the workout goal is stiff enough, the eating thing is going to be the real challenge. Two+ weeks on the wagon will not be easy, but I really need to get this under control if I'm going to leave myself a relatively comfortable margin in the GotG...and be ready for the Ascent. So not only will I be keeping track of the usual weight and workout numbers, I'm gong to try and be serious and faithful about keeping the eating log. If I'd keeping one of late, I'd probably be even more scared about the upcoming event(s).

Co Week #3

Well, not as good as week #2 (but I have plenty of excuses):

Monday 4/12 - following DC's advice to NOT run every day, I was going to ride my bike (pulling the little ones) to Veronica's soccer practice. Well, I got home and wifey and I talked for awhile and next thing we knew, it was too late to ride to practice...so we drove.

Tuesday - this was a shuffle in the schedule workout. Today was treated like as though it was Thursday so I headed to the Barr Trail. I was a little spooked (and even came down the main trail instead of taking the race cutoff) to avoid the area where bears were being reported. Great time of 51:14 for Soda Springs park to the top o' W's. last week: 54:25

Wednesday - Veronica had practice and I otherwise simply didn't get out...not sure why???

Thursday - my Tuesday tempo run for 3.5 miles in 40:48, which equals a 11:39 mm. That's up from 42:41 last week. So the question is: do i move up the distance since I have achieved my desired pace, or go one more week and move up the distance only after 3 consecutive weeks of improvement (I've only improved 2 weeks in a row)???

Friday - this was to be my long run since I was to be out of town this wkend...but more pressing things called, like beer, peanuts, and packing for the weekend.

Saturday - had a long drive to a soccer game, hand off the kids to grandparents, meet my wife, and head to Keystone; and do this before the Caps game. needless to say - no run.

Sunday - in all honesty, I really thought today was Saturday and therefore had tomorrow (Sunday) for my long run. Well since it was Sunday and I took about three naps....

Monday - though officially part of week #4, I'm counting it as the long run for week #3. This was supposed to be from the PPA start line to No Name Creek and back. Roughly a 1/4 of the total ascent. Well since I wasn't in CS, I obviously couldn't do that run so I headed out for what i thought would be 6 miles at roughly 9500 feet above sea level. About 1 mile in my back hurt like hell (damn Murphy bed in the condo) and I abandoned the run and instead turned in a 5.4 m walk in 1:23 / 15:26 mm pace. Then proceeded to drive back to CS and straight to a bar to watch the Caps and game #3 (which they won 5-1!!!).

Hopefully this week is more consistent.

Where did we go worng????

Well, I'd like to say that I had good excuses for not working out more than I have since I last posted, or that I was eating great and lost some weight. But what i have is a trip to Mexico and ....well, not much more. I've done OK getting in a a few workouts per week, but haven't been consistent.

With that said, I'm once again turning a new leaf: I will work out every day, screw rest days! To appease DC, I won't run every day, but I will do something. (To make things even more challenging, the NHL playoffs start on Thursday and that means sitting on the sofa - or at a bar if i can't get the game on TV - cutting workouts short, and generally being otherwise distracted.

I will also be setting one goal per week in an effort to otherwise improve my lot. This week: no cheese, on anything! If it has cheese on it, I'm picking something else. This will be tough since our family is apparently related to the Cheeto family.

Week in review:

Total miles - 19.97 By far the biggest sum in many many months. Though this sum won't get me up Pikes Peak (not well at least) nor will it get me to 26.2 on October (if i can make it), but it's a pretty good start.

Monday 4/5: rest day...the last one ever!

Tuesday: Tempo run. 3.5 miles in 42:41. Last week, same run in 43:33. A nice improvement but still off my pre-Mexico time of 41:32. My goal is to add distance after I get this pace to 11:26, which equals a 4:59.59 marathon! From there I'll add distance after three consecutive weeks of improvement. It was windy as hell today, but I'm glad I did the run, had the trail to myself as well.

Wednesday: OK, this was my last rest day.

Thursday: Tempo run up the switch backs. 2.62 miles up in 54:25, the exact freeking same time as the week before...WTF??? I felt a ton faster. Sheet! I did four hill repeats after the run on a short steep hill: 37, 34, 34, 29 seconds (last week: 38, 35, 36, 32). Apparently I need to run more of the road up to the trail. No snow on the trail, even though we had a snow day on Wednesday, but there was a huge tree that had fallen blocking SB#12.

Friday: ran 3 miles on the track while Veronica had soccer practice. Time = 32:47 for a 10:55 pace. Keep in mind, this was a flat soft track with the easy ability to track my pace throughout (and people were watching).

Saturday: very easy 3 miles in 39:45 for a whopping 12:59 pace. Got a good stretch in afterwards.

Sunday: my goal was to run the entire distance, and i did so pushing 2 yr old Aviana in a stroller that acted like a sail in the wind on my way back. All said and done I felt pretty good and I'm glad I did the "whole" thing without any walk breaks. 5 miles in 1:05.54 for a 13:10 pace.

Next week I'm scheduled to go up the Barr trail to No Name Creek (3.9 miles up and 2500 feet in vertical). This is going to be a problem because I'm alone with the kids on Saturday and Veronica has an out of town game at 10:30. In addition, Amy and I are ditching the kids after the game and heading to Keystone through Monday evening. I may have to make the trip up on Friday evening, though I'll have done part of it on Thursday (see why I can't get a full weeks worth of workouts in). Maybe I'll switch Tuesday and Thursday (which would also be more beneficial to my hockey desires).

Best of luck to you NM, we've got some work cut out for us in the next four months.